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US President Donald Trump drinks from a water bottle in the middle of a speech about his recent trip to Asia at the White House on Nov. 15. Trump was widely mocked on the internet and late night television for drinking water during the speech

US President Donald Trump claimed on Nov. 15 to have reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping that they “would not accept a so-called ‘freeze-for-freeze’ agreement like those that have consistently failed in the past.”

“Freeze-for-freeze” refers to Beijing’s proposal to simultaneously halt North Korean nuclear and missile testing and joint military exercises by South Korea and the US. In a press conference that day to explain the outcome of his recent Asia tour to the US public, Trump said Xi “recognizes that a nuclear North Korea is a grave threat to China.”

Experts said Xi was very unlikely to have agreed on the infeasibility of the freeze-for-freeze approach in his summit with Trump. Instead, he appears to have reiterated his previous stance that China would accept new proposals from any party, without outright disputing Trump’s claims ruling the approach out. Trump appears to have either misunderstood this or willfully interpreted in a way that was favorable to Washington.

Trump also said Xi had “use his great economic influence over the [North Korean] regime to achieve our common goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.”

“We made that time is running out and we made it clear [sic], and all options remain on the table,” Trump said.

“I made clear [in a speech before the South Korean National Assembly] that we will not allow this twisted [North Korean] dictatorship to hold the world hostage to nuclear blackmail,” he added.

“I called on every nation . . . to unite in isolating the North Korean regime . . . until it stops its dangerous provocation,” he said of the speech.

Explaining the outcome of his visit to South Korea, Trump said President Moon Jae-in had acknowledged during their summit that the US wants a fair distribution of costs for US Forces Korea.

“We are currently renegotiating the disastrous U.S.-Korea trade agreement [KORUS FTA] signed under the previous administration,” he added.

Trump finished by the declaring that the US is “back,” listing off contracts signed for the purchasing of US products in South Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam. While Trump initially billed the press conference as including a major announcement, the event was more or less a compilation of press releases from his tour.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent and Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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